For most folks, sultry summer evenings are the stuff of porch-sitting and after-work lawn mowing. Throw in a little catfishing or bass angling and you really have the season dialed in. For bowhunters though, the long evenings are also ripe for scratching that familiar itch with some backyard shooting sessions.
Although routine range evenings help keep our muscle memory in tune and our stress level down a few notches, plunking targets in the backyard can become mundane. If it gets to that point, we tend to merely maintain our skills rather than reach for the next level of personal performance.
The best way to mix things up and add some excitement to your practice sessions is to change your shooting environment and to practice with the gear that you will be hunting with. For that, nothing beats shooting practice broadheads at 3D targets placed at random distances in realistic hunting environments. The problem is, few of us can do that on a home range. Buying several 3D targets is cost prohibitive for most budgets, and the bulk and weight of full-size deer targets make relocating them just to change distance or environmental setting a real chore.
The best solution that we’ve come across for diverse broadhead practice came last year, when Delta McKenzie introduced the Mo’ Foam CHUNK target.
“What’s new about a layered target for broadheads?” you ask.
Let me explain.
You can probably add up on one hand the number of modern bowhunters who have not shot chunk-style targets. The rest of us are all too familiar with their performance. Most of these foam-layer targets (at least the ones that cost more than a family dinner at the local Burger Barn) start out great, stopping skinny carbon arrows and fat crossbow shafts with relative ease. After a month or two of diligent shooting, though, those arrows begin to punch deeper and deeper, right up to the fletching. If you are shooting fixed-blade practice broadheads and a lot of them, it happens much faster because even dull broadheads soon chew up the foam layers. The target begins to core-out in the center and the ground around it looks like a confetti explosion.
That’s problem one. Problem number two is mobility. Let’s be honest xe2x80x94 how many of you leave your targets outside? Yep, so do we. Hauling targets in and out of the garage every time we want to shoot is simply a pain. Unfortunately, most layered foam targets we have used don’t hold up well under a burning sun and summer storms. Water gets between the layers and UV radiation (we guess) begins to deteriorate the foam. Sure, we could bring them inside, but after several back-and-forth trips, most of the strap handles on targets we’ve shot rip off or the staples pull out. Now toting the target on and off the range becomes a two-handed waddle.
Problem number three is construction. The conventional method for making layered targets is to use some form of bands or straps that go around the block to compress the layers and keep them in place. Here again, use, environmental deterioration and the occasional missed shot that sends an arrow into one of the straps means the target is compromised. When a strap breaks, well xe2x80x94 the old trick of using scrap wood and ratchet straps to keep it all together is a Hail Mary fix at best.
There are some well-designed solid foam targets on the market that solve a few of these issues, but there is usually no free lunch. What these targets make up for in durability they sacrifice in weight. These targets are HEAVY (and expensive). That’s fine if standard range shooting is all you’re after and if you plan to set them and leave them, but if you want to really expand your bowhunting skills, you need a target that is easy to move around your property, throw in the back of the truck, or take to a woodland environment so you can up your real-world practice a notch or two.
Solving all of these issues is what has earned the new Delta McKenzie Mo’ Foam CHUNK our respect.
The CHUNK is made from multi-layer foam just like many of the conventional layered targets on the market today, but that is where the similarities end. The individual foam layers are more dense than most, providing not only exceptional arrow-stopping capabilities, but also longer life. In addition to using a more robust foam, the foam layers are heat-welded together inside and out. This provides greater overall durability because the foam layers are essentially unitized across all four target faces, eliminating the “confetti syndrome” that non-heat-welded layered foam targets suffer at some point.
To ensure that these layers stay together even after thousands of impacts, there are multiple weld channels passing from the top to the bottom of the target. This construction further adds to the target’s internal stability and ensures that the foam layers do not separate, and also helps prevent the shredding out of pieces of foam.
Finally, the CHUNK features integrated handles (cutouts in the foam construction) that allow you to easily grab-and-go. We think this is a far superior design to the conventional stapled-strap handle design of most layered targets because the handles will never separate.
As for weight, once again, the CHUNK makes its case. Our 15-inch model (12-inch and 18-inch models are also available) weighs around 14 pounds, so toting it across the field or into the woods is an easy effort.
The CHUNK is designed to withstand both field points and broadheads from bows of any speed. And with all four target faces featuring white aiming points and consistent material construction, you can shoot all sides with equal arrow penetration.
So how does this target stand up to real-world use? We got our first CHUNK last spring and absolutely blistered it with field points and several different practice mechanical broadhead designs all summer and into the fall, hitting it with arrows launched from vertical compounds, recurves and crossbows. To give it a bit of a torture test, we left it outside all summer and all last winter. In fact, it is still sitting on the backyard range and is as functional as the day that we bought it. There is some arrow penetration depth change on the side that we shot the most, but even our small-diameter arrows are still prevented from passing through. We can’t say that about any other layered foam target that we’ve ever used.
As a static-range target capable of taking both shooter and Mother Nature abuse, the CHUNK stands apart in our book. The fact that it is still lightweight with integrated handles for easy transport, makes it an ideal target for switching up your broadhead practice sessions since you can easily carry it across the field or into the woods for more challenging shooting environments.
That, of course, is exactly what we recommend if you want to hone your shooting skills in preparation for the fall season xe2x80x94 shoot the gear that you intend to hunt with in environments that closely duplicate the conditions in which you will be hunting.
For more information go to Delta McKenzie Targets
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